AUSTIN, TEXAS // The Big 12 Conference, which was all but given up for dead over the weekend, has made a remarkable comeback. The league got new life on Monday when the University of Texas, a leading power in American college football, declined an invitation to join the Pac-10. Soon after, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M announced that they, too, would remain in the Big 12. The decisions ended weeks-long speculation that a high-stakes game of conference musical chairs would shake up college athletics across the US.
Everyone followed Texas after Dan Beebe, the Big 12 commissioner, convinced his members they would make more money in TV and media deals in a 10-team Big 12 than in a 16-team Pac-10. Details on how that would work are still unclear, but a person with knowledge of discussions among the Big 12's remaining members said Texas was given the OK to set up its own TV network and keep all proceeds, in exchange for remaining in the Big 12.
"Everybody is feeling much more confident the Big 12 is going to survive," the person said. "Everybody's going to be making more money." The decision by Texas ended speculation that a Pac-16 would become the first super conference, spanning from the Pacific Ocean to the Lone Star State. The Big 12 conference, born in 1996 when the Big 8 merged with four members of the defunct Southwest Conference, seemed to be falling apart last week when Nebraska (Big Ten) and Colorado (Pac-10) said they would leave after the 2011-12 school year.
Now the Big 12 is back, though questions remain about how it will conduct its business. Among those are how and why the Big 12 will be more lucrative now, especially when it cannot hold a conference title game with only 10 members. * AP